The Poison within the Family: The Gripping New Crime Story, from Missing Women to Mysteries Uncovered.

By Peter Regan

After the daughter of a former employer goes missing, Alex Wade and Sky Lee begin a dangerous journey that rapidly descends into a seedy world of drugs, crime and murder. Whilst private investigations start in Manchester, evidence points toward answers that may be found in Malaga, Spain. What they eventually discover will not only test their detective skills, but also bring into question all they believed was true about people they thought they knew.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Regan
• Release date: May 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781916879515

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Alex walks down the busy street. As he turns the corner, towards his office, he spots a tall figure standing in the shadows, between two buildings, his black hoodie concealing his face. He looks up in Alex’s direction for a split second, and the figure steps forward, revealing a pale face drained of life. His blue eyes resemble the ocean, they are almost hypnotic. He has cracked, blood-red lips.

He mouths, I got you.

There’s a crack in the air. Alex hits the floor. His mind is in a frenzy, as thoughts race inside his head. What was that noise? Why am I lying on the pavement? What happened?

The realization hits him. Alex looks up and sees the man he’d just been looking at running around the same corner that he’d just come from. He feels a warm, thick substance trickle down his arm. It starts to dawn on Alex that the noise level has been amplified, around him people are screaming, running, ducking behind cars, and hiding in shop doorways. He hears sirens in the distance approaching and hopes that they are coming to help him. No one has come to his aid yet. As he tries to look around, he notices the horrified expressions looking in one direction, the way the hooded man was going, but whatever that crack in the air before was, it has stopped him in his tracks. The pain, at least, reminds him he is alive. Alex is playing a dangerous game, but in his mind, he knows that he is on the right track. However, unless he wants a bullet in his skull, he is going to have to tread carefully.

CHAPTER 1

Alex wakes up, his head now on a pillow. A doctor greets him.

You’re finally awake. I thought you were never going to wake up, he says in a joking manner. Let me tell you, if that bullet was a couple inches to the left of your shoulder it would have hit a main artery, and you would have bled out on that pavement.

It has been two days since Alex was shot on the street, and the doctor had told him how close he had come to dying, but he is hoping to get out of hospital today, as he needs to get back to his case. The longer he lies in hospital the worse it could get for Jean. As Alex lies in his hospital bed, he looks around; everyone is pacing around, enclosed in their own worries. The nurses are coming to check up on the patients, giving them their daily tablets. Some are full of life and are talking to other patients, but most lie motionless like sculptures.

The police enter the room and start talking to the doctor, they point at Alex.

My first visitors, Alex says to himself.

They start questioning him about the shooting: did he know the shooter? Had Alex seen him anywhere before? What did Alex see? Can Alex think of any reason why someone would shoot him? Alex just says he cannot remember to all the questions, and tells them that he only caught a brief glimpse of the shooter as he lay on the pavement, face pressed against the uneven, cold concrete. What he does not tell them is that he knows what the shooter looks like, he has seen the face before but cannot put his finger on where, yet he is adamant he will remember. The question Alex keeps asking himself is who sent the gunman to shoot him and why? Was this to do with Jean? If so, what has she got herself into?

Jean is his old boss’s daughter who went missing one week ago. His old boss, Bill North, phoned him when he could not get in contact with Jean, and asked Alex to try and find her, as it was not like Jean to just disappear. This should have been an easy task, ask some simple questions around the local clubs, bars and restaurants near Jean’s apartment, find Jean’s friends and probably find Jean staying at one of their places on the sofa. It started out like that, but it soon all changed quite quickly. Alex managed to uncover a couple of clues that might have led him to Jean but, at the time, Alex found these to be of no use. However, now he is worried that maybe one of the clues was the key to finding her, because now he is laid in hospital wasting valuable time. He needs to get out pretty soon.

He starts thinking about Jean; she is a twenty-four-year-old young girl, she had a normal childhood, with a couple of wild teenager years. At sixteen, she finished school with excellent grades, she then went on to college studying business, did well and finished with top marks. She could have gone to university, but decided to take a gap year and go travelling, so she went to Australia for six months, then Thailand for a month, and then she travelled round Europe, ending up in Spain visiting her father who now lived there. She applied to go to the IE Business School in Madrid and got accepted, she went there for three years, leaving with top grades and returned to Manchester. Jean’s friends, which Alex had been able to talk to, all said she was well liked, very loyal, would do anything to help you out if she could, and was very reliable, if she said she would be there she would be there without fail, so for Jean to not get in contact for just over a week was out of character and very odd.

The only good thing that could come out of today is the doctors saying that Alex can go home. He cannot wait to get out of hospital, but with the injury to his arm, he is going to need some help for a while. He will phone an old mate and see if he can recommend someone who will be able to help him out. He just needed to get home so he can start to try and work things out and try and find out what is going on, because you don’t get shot just for a missing young girl, something and someone is behind all of this, and he hopes he can find out before it’s too late for Jean.

Alex gets back to his combined flat and office later on that evening. It took ages for the doctors to decide if he could go home. In the end, it came down to bed space and someone more urgent needing his; the NHS were stretched as normal.

The taxi drops him off outside his office, Alex pays the driver and makes his way to his front door, half expecting it to be damaged by whoever found him the other day and had shot him. But he saw nothing out of place, no strange people hanging about, no unusual cars aimlessly waiting for him; it all looked normal. Alex places his key in the front door and turns the lock, all the time wondering what he might find on the other side of the door. Alex pushes the door ajar just a little bit, just enough so he can peek in and take a look inside, while he also listens for any odd noises. He cannot see anything out of place or hear anything that rings alarm bells with him, so he makes his way inside and shuts the door behind him.

Alex switches a light on in the small hallway. He makes his way down the hall, past his pictures on the wall. On the right was an open-plan office space with a reception desk. He had planned on hiring someone to work reception but had not got that far, so the desk just became a place to leave things on. In front of that was a small, two-seater sofa and a single chair, Alex called this his waiting area, and then you had the door to his office. In there, he had his desk, some cabinets and a couple of chairs, along with a few pictures on the wall just to brighten the room up. If you carried on down the hall, there was another door on your right where there was a little kitchen, with a small coffee machine, nearly everyone loves a coffee and, if not, he had tea. And on the left-hand side of the hall was a door that led to the toilet.

All seemed well in his office, nothing was out of place. It all looked as he had left it two days ago – the same dirty mugs in the sink, the same unopened letters on his desk – it looked like no one had been in.

Alex turns to look at the end of his hallway where the stairs are that lead up to his apartment above his office. Alex switches the lights on for upstairs and makes his way up. The pain in his arm reminds him it is time to take some more painkillers, the ones the hospital gave him are now wearing off. As he gets to the top of the stairs, he stops and looks around his apartment. The stairs kind of come up in the middle of a large, open-plan kitchen-diner-cum-lounge with four big windows on the right with a large sofa under them and a TV just to the left of the sofa. The kitchen is to your left, all down one side, with a dining table behind where the stairs come up. Straight ahead, off all this, are two doors, one leads to the bathroom, the other to the bedroom. His apartment always reminds him of the apartment in the TV show Friends. He can see, from where he is stood, that all is the same as he left it; it is a mess though.

Alex makes his way to the kitchen, puts the kettle on, so he can have a decent coffee, takes his meds and phones his mate to see if he can recommend someone to help him out while he recovers. Twenty minutes later, after explaining to his mate everything that had happened, he has a name and a number of someone who might help him out. She used to be in the Greater Manchester police force, Miss Lee is an ex-detective, and his mate had told him that she is one of the good ones.

Alex phones Miss Lee and explains who he is and who had given him her number. He also tells her a little bit about what had been happening. She mentions that their mutual friend had already phoned her and explained a little. Miss Lee says that she will come over first thing in the morning to discuss everything and to see if she can help in any way, she also asks for the address.

See you in the morning, she says.

Alex says goodnight. His next call is to Bill, his ex-boss. The call goes as well as can be expected. Bill was worried about his mate, knowing he had been shot while trying to find his daughter. He is scared and worried for his daughter’s safety, as he has still not heard from Jean. Alex says he has no news either, but is hoping to get help from an ex-police woman and that she is due to come over in the morning. Two heads are better than one. Alex tells Bill that he will keep him informed, as soon as he has any news he will phone him and that they will not stop until they find Jean.

Bill thanks him and says, Speak soon, and then the line goes dead.

CHAPTER 2

In the morning, Alex gets up early at 5 a.m., he is normally up no later than six, but with Miss Lee coming over he wants a clear head – he does not want to forget anything for Jean’s sake – so, he showers, has a shave and tries to make himself look normal, because if Miss Lee is going to help, he needs to look his best, or maybe just alive would do, as he only has thirty minutes before Miss Lee is due to arrive.

Alex goes to the kitchen and puts the coffee machine on, as you cannot do anything until you have had your first cup of coffee; it helps clear the cobwebs. He then starts to tidy up a little bit, just so his apartment does not look like a dump. While doing this he realizes he is starving, he has not eaten anything in over twenty-four hours. Alex looks in his cupboard and sees a bag of pasta, one tin of beans, tomato sauce, and a couple of other items that will not help him out. Right, a trip to McDonald’s is needed for a quick breakfast and then later to the shop. He needed to keep himself alert to help Jean, so Alex needs food in to keep his energy up. Alex gets his phone out and dials Miss Lee, as she is due to arrive in twenty minutes. She answers quickly after only two rings.

Good morning, hope you are well, Alex says. Just wanted to let you know, I’m just popping round to McDonald’s to get some breakfast, I am starving and have nothing in. Would you like something?

Miss Lee says morning as well, and then goes on to say, I am already out and on my way round, so instead, I will pick up McDonald’s, because by the time you get ready, with your arm, I will already be there.

Alex thinks she has a good point and says, OK, see you when you get here. That gives Alex a little more time to sort himself out at least.

Bang on twenty minutes later, there’s a knock at Alex’s front door. He makes his way to the door and, on opening it, he sees a very attractive, young lady stood there, the same height as himself, about six foot one inch, give or take, with a slim, athletic build, blond hair, very sharp-looking eyes, eyes that probably don’t miss much, and a lovely smile. She’s very professional-looking but not over the top. And in her hands are two bags of food from McDonald’s.

Come on in, Miss Lee. It’s lovely to meet you, Alex says.

Miss Lee says, Call me Sky. Miss Lee sounds too formal.

Alex says, Sky it is then.

Sky says, That’s the formal bit out of the way. Let’s have our breakfast. I am starving, and then we can chat.

Alex takes Sky upstairs to his apartment, so they can at least eat in some comfort on the sofa. Sky’s first impression of Alex is that he’s nice-looking, athletic build, same height as her, brown hair and a trusting look on his face, all in all her first impression was good, and she always relied on her gut, it was telling her he was OK. Two sausage and egg muffins, a hash brown and a coffee each afterwards and they were ready to talk.

Alex tells Sky about Jean, what she had been up to prior to her disappearance, and Sky listens and takes some notes. Alex then goes on and tells her about Max, Jean’s stepbrother, that he now runs the company along with Jean, and that Max is older by ten years. He explains that Bill, the father, now lives in Spain, in a little village just outside Malaga. He also explains that he had only just started looking for Jean, over the last week, that it was Bill who had phoned him about Jean, and that Bill was worried because he had not heard from her in all that time. Alex says he had visited Jean’s apartment, all had seemed well there, but a fresh set of eyes would be good. He also says he has visited a couple of clubs which Max said his sister went to but he’d got nothing, no one knew her. He had asked Max for anything Jean had been working on and to give him a background on her, but that’s as far as Alex had got before he was shot. Alex looks at Sky and he can see she’s thinking everything over that he had said, he just waits to see what she’s going to say.

Sky looks up and stares right into Alex’s eyes. She can see he’s waiting to find out what she’s decided. Sky had already decided to help Alex last night, she’d just needed to know everything to confirm what her friend had said about Alex and, after meeting him, she already feels that they will work well together; you get these gut feelings about people sometimes and you just have to follow them.

Right, Sky says, what we need to do…

Alex butts in and says, So, you are going to help me then? Sky smiles and says, Of course I am. I think we will work well together and, between us both, we will find Jean.

Sky can see the relief on Alex’s face, she knew he was worried about Jean and he would do anything to find her and asking for help when you needed it was a mark of a good man.

Sky says she will go back to Jean’s apartment and see if she can spot anything and see if she can speak to anyone who knew Jean there, she will also go and visit the nightclubs and ask if they knew Jean. Sky asks Alex if anyone knew if Jean was seeing anyone, because if she was they hadn’t come forward.

Alex replies that no one he had spoken to had mentioned a boyfriend, but he looks down and says, I never asked. Maybe I am too close to the family. It’s good you are here with a completely new set of eyes.

Sky smiles and says, Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at everything again with a different perspective, this is what I am here to do. Right, and while I am out doing what I need to do, you need to start looking at North Transport. All you need to know, at the moment, is if there are any disputes they are having with either clients or other transport companies that may want to prove a point.

Alex knows Sky is right. At that moment, he had only looked at the clubs Max had told him about, plus only checked Jean’s apartment out, but since then he had been shot so that had stopped him looking at anything else. But now he had help in Sky.

Sky gets up and makes them both another coffee. She says, We will need this before we start.

Sky says she is going to see if she can find out anything and will come back later in the evening with an update, but she will keep in contact during the day just to check in; better to be safe. As Sky leaves, Alex realizes he quite likes her and thinks that between the two of them they will find Jean.

Alex goes back upstairs after saying bye to Sky and locking his front door. He pours a glass of water and takes his painkillers before he gets started. Alex phones North Transport and gets the receptionist. He asks to speak to Max, and he is put on hold. While the music is playing, he thinks about when he worked for North Transport, running the security for Bill North. When he was there, they had over two hundred trucks, spread over Europe, transporting a wide range of goods, now he was told they had double that.

His thoughts are interrupted by the receptionist, as she comes back on the line and says, Mr Wade, I am sorry, but Mr North is busy at the moment. He will call you when he is free.

Alex replies, Did you tell Max I am phoning about his sister, Jean?

Yes, Mr Wade I did and, as I have said, he will phone you back when he is free, and on that note the line went dead.

Alex is annoyed that the receptionist put the phone down on him and that Max did not take his call. With everything that had happened in the last couple of days, he would have expected Max to talk to him, they had known each other for over ten years. Alex decides that he will give Max the benefit of the doubt and will wait for him to phone back, and when he does, he will say something then, but he now wants Sky to take a look at Jean’s office and see if a new set of eyes notices anything he could have missed, because he thinks he is too close to the family. Their office is only in Trafford Park, just off Mosley Road, so not far at all, they can just drop in. And while he waits for Sky to come back, he phones security at North Transport to see if they have received any threats to the North family, or if they have any unhappy clients or anything out of the ordinary maybe aimed at Jean, Bill, or Max, or even just the company in general.

The conversation with the security team is short, and they say they will send over anything they have for him to look at, but they cannot think of anyone who would do this. Alex thanks them for their time.

CHAPTER 3

After Sky leaves Alex’s office/flat, she decides that she quite likes Alex, and she will do everything she can to help him. She gets on the phone to a friend who is still in the police force and who owes her a couple of favours. Sky asks her if she can find out the name of the security company that provides bouncers for the clubs they have been told about by Max that Jean went to, and her friend says she will get back to her later on that afternoon.

While Sky waits for her friend to get back to her, she makes her way over to Jean’s apartment on Salford Quays to take a look. The address Alex gave Sky was Ambassador Apartments on Clippers Quay just off Trafford Road. She knows the area because her old place of work was just around the corner at the police headquarters near White City, but she has not been in that area for a couple of years. She does remember though that there used to be a cinema at that address, so these must be new apartments that she is going to.

As Sky pulls up outside the apartments, she thinks about how much this little area has changed; it looks a lot better now than before. Sky looks for somewhere to park. The apartments have security barriers to the underground car park, so she turns right into the Hilton’s hotel car park and finds a spot; she hopes they will not mind. As she sits there, looking over at the apartment block, she thinks that it wouldn’t be a bad place to live, it’s easy to get around, about ten minutes to the town centre and the same to the Trafford Centre. The outside areas are lovely and clean, and they’ve planted some trees and shrubs to make it look like a little village in a town. She notices quite a few security cameras, hopefully these might have caught something that helps.

Sky walks over to the block and notices, at the reception, there is a concierge service. This is good for a couple of reasons; one, security, you need to go past them if you are walking in, and two, they rarely miss things. Sky decides she will need to speak to them at some point before she leaves. Sky is glad she has a set of keys; the fob will get her in the front door. Sky heads round the corner of the apartment block, past the Co-op shop, and heads straight to the main doors. As she enters, the young woman, behind the reception desk, looks up and welcomes Sky.

Good morning, miss, she says.

Sky replies back, Good morning. Can you help me? I am looking for Miss North’s apartment, 449. Could you direct me please, as I have not been here before?

The receptionist says, Could I have your name please, as I have not seen you before, and I will need to register you on the system?

Sky looks at the receptionist and smiles, Yes, my name is Miss Lee. I work for Mr Wade’s security company. We do security for Miss North’s company. This was a little white lie but close to the truth, as Sky is helping Alex trace Jean.

The receptionist smiles back and starts typing on her keypad, when she stops she looks up and says, Is Miss North on holiday, as we have not seen her for a week or so? Miss North normally lets us know if she is going away, so we can keep an eye on things and collect her mail.

Sky says, This is what we are trying to find out. We have not heard from Miss North either.

The receptionist looks at Sky, and Sky can see she is thinking of something, but she’s not sure whether to say it, so Sky helps her out.

What’s on your mind?

The receptionist says, Thinking about it, we have not seen Miss North’s friend either for a week or so, and we normally see them together all the time.

Sky asks, What is Miss North’s friend’s name?

The receptionist says, It’s Miss Lopez.

Sky says, Thank you, and if you do not mind, I am going to look around Miss North’s apartment, and then can I come back and talk to you about Miss North’s friend, Miss Lopez.

The receptionist says, Of course, anything to help. I hope Miss North and Miss Lopez are OK, they are both lovely people. The receptionist then says, Go down the corridor, the lift is on your left, and go up to level 4, then come out of the lift, turn left, go down the corridor, nearly to the end, and Miss North’s apartment comes up on your left.

Sky thanks her and heads to the lift.

Following the exact directions given to her by the receptionist, Sky reaches Jean’s apartment door. She looks at the entrance and can see no damage, no tampering with the lock, all looks as it should be. Sky puts the key in the lock and turns it so she can open the door. She pushes the door fully open and just stands there. Using her key senses, she looks, listens and sniffs to figure out if she can smell anything out of the ordinary, or see, or hear anything. She cannot see or hear anything unusual, but she can smell something.

Sky steps into Jean’s apartment, it’s cleaning products, the apartment has been cleaned recently, but no one should have been in here in the last nine days. If Jean had cleaned the apartment the day she went missing, the cleaning products would not smell this strong; someone had been in here. Sky shuts the door behind her, and she notices how strong Jean’s front door looks, so anyone coming in would either have to be known by Jean, or have a set of keys.

Sky carries on down the small hallway, which opens up on to a large, open-plan lounge and kitchen with a large patio door to the right. The patio door opens up on to a large balcony, which has a lovely view of the quays, the only thing that ruins the view is you can see Old Trafford, Manchester United’s football ground. Sky supports Manchester City, so probably would have got a better view. Anyway, back to the apartment. To Sky’s left is a large, beautiful kitchen with an island separating the lounge from the kitchen, which has a couple of high stools next to it. The kitchen and the lounge all look very clean and tidy, maybe too tidy. Sky is getting the impression that no one lives here. Sky opens some of the cupboards to check if anything is in them, and she is surprised to actually see items there, so maybe Jean did live here and whoever had cleaned up had put everything away. As she keeps looking around, she notices no photos and nothing is on the coffee table in front of the TV. She just cannot shake the feeling that someone has tidied up and probably removed Jean’s stuff. Even the sofa looks like no one had ever sat on it. The one picture she does see is on the wall and that is one of a flower that you could pick up from any B&Q.